Time
by B00kw0rm92
Summary: In just a few hours, a person's whole world can change. This is a glimpse into the beginning of the grieving process as New Directions mourns one of their own. / Warning: Character Death / Angst Meme Prompt Fill / Oneshot


**Author's Note One: **This is a prompt fill ... I'm honestly not sure how I ended up taking it the way it went, but I did and I hope you guys like it! I'll post the prompt in a second Author's Note at the bottom since it's spoilery.

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><p>It had been five hours and two minutes since they heard about about the accident, four hours and forty-seven minutes since they had shown up at the hospital and four hours and nine minutes since they had gotten the news. Three hours and thirteen minutes ago the group had managed to calm enough to make their way to the Hudson-Hummel household. Forty-eight minutes ago Rory had begged the Pierces to let him stay and twenty-four minutes ago, several minutes after the last of the group had either left on their own or been nearly dragged away by their parents, they realized Puck wasn't leaving either. One minute ago they stopped having to pretend they didn't hear the sobbing coming from behind the closed bedroom door. Burt had been counting.<p>

He looked back at the clock, it had been four hours and ten minutes now. Four hours and ten minutes since the doctors had walked into the waiting room and announced that Quinn Fabray had died. Four hours and ten minutes since since there had been a dry eye among the group. Four hours and ten minutes since Quinn's mother had let out that awful scream. Four hours and ten minutes since all the color drained from the faces of fourteen teenagers. Four hours and ten minutes since their lives had changed forever.

It had been four hours and eight minutes since the hearts of every parent in the room broke all over again when the remaining members of New Directions had refused to let anyone comfort them but each other. Three hours and fifty-six minutes ago the fourteen friends had ended up huddled together in a heartbreaking combination of a group hug and a pile of sobbing children. Three hours and forty-nine minutes ago Burt had been the one to break the news to Quinn's father after he came running into the waiting room and found Judy unable to speak yet. Three hours and thirty minutes ago he had stood with his hand on Russell Fabray's shoulder as the other man made the hardest phone call of his life and gave his oldest daughter the news.

Three hours and twenty-two minutes ago the teenagers had finally begun to separate and the adults had begun to split them into groups as they made the decision to bring them all back to the Hudson-Hummel household. Two hours and fifty-five minutes ago there was another huddle of grieving teenagers in the Hummel-Hudson living room. Two hours and thirty-three minutes ago what was left of New Directions had finally started to break into smaller groups. Two hours and twenty-seven minutes ago, he looked away from the still hysterical mess that was Rachel, Blaine and his sons and his eyes found Sam, the other boy he was responsible for, sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest and looking frighteningly pale.

Two hours and twenty-six minutes ago, he realized that Sam hadn't spoken since the announcement and two hours and twenty-five minutes ago, he realized that neither had Puck and Mercedes. Two hours and twenty-one minutes ago, those three had formed their own small group, silently leaning against each other for comfort as tears streamed down their faces. Two hours and nineteen minutes ago, Rory joined them. Two hours and sixteen minutes ago, the kids had formed four solid groups, seeming to lack the energy to move around the room to each other any longer.

One hour and fifty-four minutes ago the adults found themselves gathered around the dinning room table, still shooting occasional worried glances at the teenagers in the other room as they sat in shock themselves. One hour and forty-nine minutes ago, Leroy had said that it was like the kids had lost a piece of themselves and Will had commented that they had. One hour and forty-two minutes ago, Emma had promised to offer grief counseling. One hour and forty-one minutes ago, Carole had whispered in his ear that she hoped grief counseling would be enough.

One hour and thirty-five minutes ago some of the teenagers began to realize that they needed to call their parents. One hour and twenty-two minutes ago, parents had begun to show up to take their crying children home and Artie was the first to leave. One hour and seventeen minutes ago, Blaine's father had refused to let him stay. One hour and twelve minutes ago, Tina and Mike's mother's had managed to pry them away from each other to take them home. One hour and three minutes ago, Sugar's father had taken her home after promising her that he would offer to help pay to give Quinn the funeral she deserved. Fifty seven minutes ago, the remaining teenagers had huddled into one group again.

Fifty one minutes ago, Santana had quietly told Brittany's parents that she wasn't sure Brittany really understood yet. Forty-five minutes ago, she left with them while Rory stayed. Thirty-two minutes ago Mercedes had been pried away from Sam at about the same time that Finn and Rachel had finally been separated and Rachel and Mercedes had headed home. Thirty minutes ago, the remaining five boys had headed upstairs. Twenty-eight minutes ago, they had heard the sobbing start again. Twenty minutes ago, Carole had called Puck's mother to make sure he could stay.

Seventeen minutes ago, Will and Emma had gone home as well. Sixteen minutes ago, Burt had held his wife as she sobbed again, remembering the girl she had once thought was carrying her grandchild. Thirteen minutes ago, Burt had found himself wondering if the kids would ever recover from this loss, this horribly timed loss. Six minutes ago, Carole had called Judy to ask if there was anything she could do to help. Three minutes ago, he choked back a sob as he let himself briefly imagine how he would have felt if Kurt had been the one to die.

Forty-five seconds ago, he decided to check on the boys. Fifteen seconds ago, he had gently opened the door to find all five boys sitting on Kurt's bed, clinging to each other with silent tears still running down their faces, to lost in their grief to even care. Seven seconds ago, Kurt had told him they were fine on their own and indicated that he wanted him to leave. One second ago, Burt found himself leaning against the wall in the hallway as he remembered how much he hated feeling so helpless.

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><p>Kurt, Finn, Sam, Rory and Puck sat huddled together on the bed, occasionally wiping tears from their eyes. Just a few hours ago, they had all been so happy. They had won Regionals, they were going to Nationals again and Rachel had just talked the Justice of the Peace into putting the wedding off for an hour to make sure they would all be there. It was amazing how things had changed in just one hour. In one hour they had gone from celebrating to mourning. One hour had been enough to change everything.<p>

They didn't know how long they had sat there, silently drawing comfort from the simple fact that the others were there and alive when Sam finally spoke up.

"I can't believe she's gone." he said in a soft, hollow voice.

"I can't either. Quinn was always so nice to me. I'm really gonna miss her." Rory had replied.

"We were just talking the other day about how we would Skype once a week once we were in college. She didn't want any of us to lose touch." Kurt added brokenly.

There was another long stretch of silence before Finn spoke, "She was my first girlfriend. Now she's ... dead."

"It's not fair!" Puck yelled standing up so quickly that he nearly knocked the others over, "Quinn was really going to be someone. She was getting out of here! She turned everything around - she was going to Yale! She was ... she was going to be amazing. She was amazing. Why her? She had so much to live for! Why does someone who didn't want to live anymore get to when she has to _die_?" he yelled, saying things in his anger and grief that he never would have voiced other wise.

Suddenly it seemed like he deflated, sinking back onto the bed, "Quinn shouldn't be dead. Quinn can't be dead. Not Quinn, not Quinn. It's not fair." he said quietly, burying his face in his hands.

Sam pulled his friend into a hug, "I don't know what I would have done without her when we were in the hotel. It's not fair." he said, agreeing, "But ... life isn't fair. I just wish it had been for her."

"She didn't have enough time." Kurt added, his voice breaking and causing his brother to wrap his arms around him in an attempt to offer more comfort.

The small group fell back in to silence. None of them knew what else to say. The grief was still to raw to really be put into words. All they could do was sit and remember her. All they could do was hope that maybe, with time, things would get easier. All of them doubted it would.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>And right about now, I'm pretty sure all of you who know me are wondering if I've been replaced by a pod person. Yeah, I don't know how I made myself kill her off either. I've never killed off a main character before. Anyway ... here's the prompt:

"Burt and Carole bought a house with two extra bedrooms plus a den with a pullout couch. There's plenty of room for guests, even with Sam taking one of the guest rooms. But Burt still finds five teenage boys crammed together on Kurt's bed, holding each other and faces still red from crying."


End file.
